Vaporizing oil burner



3 Sheets- Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 24, 1947 imwmm Jan. 30, 1951 s, c, ow 2,540,018

} VAPORIZING OIL BURNER Filed Feb. 24, 194'? 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FI6.Z

llfi HIHH Pi Jan. 30, 1951 s. c. TOWAR VAPORIZING OIL BURNER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 24, 1947 INVENTOR. 5:077 (I 75%? Patented Jan. 30, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VAPORIZING OIL BURNER Scott C. .Towar, Burbank, Calif.

Application February 24, 1947, Serial No. 730,260

' 2Claims.

This invention relates" in general to a burner unit designed for use infurnaces; space heaters and-the like, and has forits object the provision of acompact oil burner unitincluding aburner shell, an-airpreheater formed as an integral part ofthe shell, a stack of fuel distributors mounted within the shell and valve means for controlling the fuel delivered to each of the distributors.

A further-objectof the inventionis the provision of a burner shell and air preheater of such form as to produce aventuriaction at the juncture thereof and a high degree of turbulence in the airas it passes through the shell and over the fuel distributing units.

The invention possesses other advantageous features, some of which, withthe foregoing, will be setforth at length in the following description where that form of the invention which has been selected for'illustration in" the drawings accompanying and forming a part of the present specification is outlined in full In saiddrawings, one formof the invention isshown, butit is to lac-understood that-it-is not limited to such form, since the inventionas-set-forth in the claims may b'e'embodied in a'plnralityof forms.

Referring tothe drawings:

Fig. 1 is an'isometric projection of an oil burner unit embodying the objects ofmy invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal mid-section taken through the burner unit illustrated in Fig. 1'.

Fig. 3 isan isometric projection of the stack of fuel distributors forming part of my burner unit.

Fig. 4 isa vertical mid-section of the multiple needle valve used for controlling the delivery of oil to the distributors.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the burner illustrated in the above figures.

The burner unit illustrated in these various figures comp-rises a shell or.combustion chamber of elbow form generally designated by the numeral l and including a floor 2, a back wall 3, opposed side walls 4 and 5, an arched, rearwardly inclined top wall 6 and, an arch l. The side walls 4 and 5 diverge rearwardly and merge with the back wall 3, top wall 5 and arch to form a streamlined combustion chamber devoid of sharp corners.

Defined by the terminating edges of the arch I, back wall 3 and side walls 4 and 5 is a generally circular outlet 8. And defined by the forward edges of the bottom wall 2, side walls :1 and 5 and top wall 6 is a generally rectangular *opening' 9. Fastened along the fdrward e ge of each ofthe side walls 4 and 5 is a channel II and slidably disposed within these channels across the opening 9 is a Pyrex glass window 12.

Fastened to the lower face of the bottom wall 2 is a forwardly converging air-preheating duct |3* of generally rectangular cross-section. The rear open end of the duct I3 preferably extends rearwardly of the back wall 3 and through the rearwall I4 of the furnace or space heater within which my burner unit is designedto be mounted so as to'serve as a cold air intake. The forward end 15 of the bottom" wall It" of the air duct isupturned sovthat its forward edge is in alignment withthe forward end of the burner unit. Communication between the duct I3 and the com'bustion chamberis effectedthrough a rectangular opening ll, defined by these two members. Since theair duct [3 converges forwardly and communicates through therestricted; opening ll with the rearwardly divergent combustion chamber l, a high degree of turbulence takes place in the preheated air as it"passes through the combustion chamber. I

Secured to and extending forwardly from the bottom of the air duct is is a, ledge l9 serving as a support for the window I 2 when the window is in its closed position.

Mountedwithin the combustion chamber I on legs laiwelded or otherwise secured to the bottom wall 2 is a stack ofvertically spaced longitudinally extending arcuate vaporizing plates. 2|. Seated on the forwardend of each plate 21 is an arcuate mineral wick ZEconveniently made of fire brick andwiredjtothe upper face of each plate 21 and its associated wick is a vaporizing tube v23. having about '729perforations per square inch.

Mounted on the forward end of the top plate 6 is a multiple needle valve generally designated by the reference numeral 24. The valve 24 includes a cylindrical valve body 25 formed with a threaded lateral oil intake bore 26 and with a threaded vertical bore 2i. Sealed to and extending through the lower wall of the bore 26 are three oil feed pipes 28, 29 and 3|, the free ends of which terminate just within the open forward ends of the perforated vaporizing tubes 23. Extending with close clearance through openings formed in the common wall of the valve body 25 Which separates the bores 26 and 21 are three needles 32, one in vertical alignment with the upper end of each of the pipes 28, 29 and 3|. The upper ends of the needles 32 are fastened to a disc 33.;and disposed within the bore 21, between the bot-torn thereof and the disc 33 is a resilient" seal ring 34. Threaded into the bore 21 in contact with the disc 33 is a headed adjusting screw 35. It will be seen that as a result of this construction the clearance between the needles 32 and the valve seats constituted by the upper ends of the pipes 28, 29 and 3| can be adjusted at will by rotating the screw 35 in the required direction.

A burner unit of character above described should be so installed Within a furnace or space heater that its forward end, including the valve 24, lies just forward of the front wall of the furnace or heater and the rear end of the air duct I3 extends through the rear wall of furnace or heater. The bore 26 should of course be connected with a suitable source of oil underpressure.

To start the burner the valve 24 is opened to thereby cause oil to flow through the pipes 28,

29 and 3| into the forward end of each of vaporizing tubes 23 and through the small perforations therein onto the upper surfaces of the wicks 22 and vaporizing plates 2|. This having been done, a light is applied to one or all of the wicks 22 to ignite the film of oil formed thereon.

As soon as the air within the combustion chamber has become heated and consequently less dense than the external air, cold air will flow inwardly through the air duct 13 thereby causing a draft through the burner. When the vaporizing tubes 23 become hot the oil will pass through the perforations therein in the form of vapor and will ignite in such form without first forming an oil film over the plates 2|. In a short time the combustion chamber will be filled with a solid flame passing outwardly through the opening I8.

Since the combustion chamber and the air duct l3 are made of steel a heat exchange from the walls thereof to the air passing inwardly through the duct will be effected, this exchange being suflicient to heat the air to at least the temperature of the stack gases of the furnace or heater with which the burner is associated. This of course results in a very efficient combustion of the oil vapor and materially decreases stack heat losses. The efficiency of the burner is further increased by the more complete admixture of fuel and air resulting from the turbulence imparted to the air in passing through the restricted opening [1.

I claim:

1. An oil burner adapted to be placed partially within a furnace combustion chamber comprising: walls defining a rearwardly diverging burner combustion chamber; a forwardly converging air preheating duct extending along and in surface contact with a wall of said burner combustion chamber and communicating at its forward end with the forward end of said burner combustion chamber; a plurality of parallel vertically spaced and superposed plates mounted in said burner combustion chamber and providing a plurality of fuel vaporizing surfaces; and means including a manually operable valve for delivering equal quantities of oil to said fuel vaporizing surfaces.

2. A natural draft, gravity fed, manually operated vaporizing oil burner adapted to be placed partially within a furnace combustion chamber comprising: walls defining a rearwardly diverging burner combustion chamber; a forwardly converging air preheating duct extending along and in surface contact with a wall of said burner combustion chamber and communicating at its forward end with the forward end of said burner combustion chamber; a plurality of superposed, vertically spaced plates mounted in said burner combustion chamber and providing a plurality of fuel vaporizing surfaces; a fuel supply pipe extending from a point immediately above each of said plates to a point external to said furnace combustion chamber; and a metering valve connected to the outer ends of said pipes for delivering equal and metered quantities of fuel oil simultaneously to each of said plates.

SCOTT C. TOWAR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 398,919 White Mar. 5, 1889 965,721 Lisieniecki July 26, 1910 1,095,903 Matthews May 5, 1914 1,148,515 Irinyi Aug. 3, 1915 1,386,608 DuPont Aug. 9, 1921 1,393,207 DuPont Oct. 11, 1921 1,441,978 Gibbs Jan. 9, 1923 1,648,981 Crisenberry Nov. 15, 1927 1,677,371 Rother July 17, 1928 1,764,292 Ferguson June 17, 1930 2,109,946 Little Mar. 1, 1938 2,220,828 Riley Nov. 5, 1940 2,333,602 Van Almelo Nov. 2, 1943 2,344,428 Torrey Mar. 14, 1944 2,386,746 Hess Oct. 9, 1945 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 376,734 Germany June 2, 1923 

